Friday, August 29, 2014

Shell is trying once again to begin drilling in the Arctic


Shell is trying once again to begin drilling in the Arctic


Royal Dutch Shell has asked the United States federal government for permission to begin drilling in the Arctic, not too far off of the coast of Alaska. The company’s previous attempts to begin drilling in the Arctic came to a halt back in 2012 due to numerous pratfalls and violations of federal regulations. It has since revised its plan and resubmitted it for approval.


The revised exploration plan, which the company submitted to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in Anchorage, calls for two drilling vessels to operate in the Chukchi Sea at the same time, rather than the previous plan which called for one in the Chukchi and one in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s north Coast.


Shall has been trying to drill in the Arctic for over a decade, but its attempts have been plagued by numerous challenges and mishaps. The company had to abandon its hopes of drilling in the Arctic this year after it was ruled that the United States government hadn’t properly assessed the potential environmental damage that large-scale oil production could do.


The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is currently working on an environmental study that Shell hopes will be able to satisfy the court and enable the company to begin drilling in the Arctic.


Read more about the story at The New York Times.


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Climate change is eventually going to hit Hawaii hard


Climate change is eventually going to hit Hawaii hard


A new report from the University of Hawaii is warning the state’s tourism industry to begin preparing to feel the effects of climate change. The report warns that Hawaii will most likely begin seeing a lot more competition from easier-to-access tropical resorts along the coastal regions from Texas to Arizona.


Thanks to climate change, Hawaii is expected to become hotter and drier. That means less cooling trade winds, roaring waterfalls, and gorgeous forest streams, and more droughts. There will also be fewer beaches as the sea levels rise and the coast begins to erode away.


The report was paid for by the Hawaii Tourism Authority, which is looking for strategies to adapt to the inevitable changes. One of the biggest challenges that the state’s tourism industry will face is the rising sea levels. The vast majority of Hawaii’s hotels and resorts are located near the shore, and will soon have to deal with increased flooding and storm surges.


Dolan Eversole, a coastal hazards extension agent for the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program and one of the authors of the report, has said that the earth’s climate is already being changed by rising greenhouse gases from across the globe, however, we won’t experience the major effects for another few decades or so.


Some of Hawaii’s beaches will erode by fifty feet or more by 2050, and some beaches will disappear entirely. More and more, Hawaii is being faced with the choice of a costly retreat from the coast to maintain its healthy sand beaches, or armoring its shorelines in order to protect its hotels while running the risk of losing even more of its shorelines.


Read more about the story at The Huffington Post.


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Louisiana is being swallowed into the Gulf of Mexico


Louisiana is being swallowed into the Gulf of Mexico


Scientists are saying that one of the greatest environmental and economic disasters in the history of the United States, the rapid loss of land that is occurring in the southeast portion of Louisiana, is on the fast track towards a catastrophic conclusion over the next few decades.


The Louisiana coastline has been shrinking over the last few decades, and the rate at which it gets swallowed into the Gulf of Mexico is increasing every year. It has been estimated that the state loses a chunk of land equal in size to a football field every hour or so.


According to ProPublica: “In 50 years, most of southeastern Louisiana not protected by levees will be part of the Gulf of Mexico. The state is losing a football field of land every 48 minutes, 16 square miles a year, due to climate change, drilling and dredging for oil and gas, and levees on the Mississippi River.”


“This land being swallowed by the Gulf is home to half of the country’s oil refineries, a matrix of pipelines that serve 90 percent of the nation’s offshore energy production and 30 percent of its total oil and gas supply, a port vital to 31 states, and 2 million people who would need to find other places to live,” according to ProPublica.


Read more about the story at Popular Science.


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Existing power plants will spew forth over 300 billion tons of CO2


Existing power plants will spew forth over 300 billion tons of CO2


Power plants across the globe are going to spew forth more than three-hundred billion tons of carbon dioxide over their expected lifetimes, adding massive amounts of the climate-warming gas to the atmosphere. That number is just from the power plants that are currently in existence, it doesn’t include power plants that have yet to be built.


This is according to findings by scientists from the University of California in Irvine (UCI) and Princeton University. These findings, which appeared in Environmental Research Letters earlier this week, are the first to quantify just how quickly these “committed” emissions are growing, which is around four percent annually, as more fossil fuel-burning power plants are being built.


“Bringing down carbon emissions means retiring more fossil fuel-burning facilities than we build,” said Steven Davis, assistant professor of Earth system science at UCI and the study’s lead author. “But worldwide, we’ve built more coal-burning power plants in the past decade than in any previous decade, and closures of old plants aren’t keeping pace with this expansion. Far from solving the climate change problem, we’re investing heavily in technologies that make the problem worse.”


“We’ve been hiding what’s going on from ourselves: A high-carbon future is being locked in by the world’s capital investments,” said Socolow, professor emeritus of mechanical & aerospace engineering. “Current conventions for reporting data and presenting scenarios for future action need to give greater prominence to these investments. Such a rebalancing of attention will reveal the relentlessness of coal-based industrialization, long underway and showing no sign of abating.”


Read more about the story at Scientific American.


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Thursday, August 28, 2014

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Soul inside



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They See a Pre-Trib Rapture Because They Want to See It


Rapture


There is something inherently wonderful about the concept of the rapture. It means salvation, joy, and harmony to the majority of Christians. Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen the way that most believe.


This is not an article to give evidence about the idea that we will go through tribulation before the return of our Messiah. It’s also not an article that will go into the reasons that the false idea of a pre-tribulation rapture became so popular and why it’s taught in most Christian churches today. That particular conspiracy theory would take much longer than one article to explain. Today, let’s simply discuss the dangers of having a closed mind and the reason that so many do.


The title of this post is unfortunate because there really is not a “they” or an “us” in this debate. The reality is that those who live long enough to see the end days just prior to the return of Jesus Christ will all be faced with tremendous challenges and the type of world that most do not want to consider. The reason that I use the word “they” is in hopes that you, the reader, will soon be willing to open your mind to reality.


When Hope is Blinding


Hope is the cornerstone of a set of emotions bestowed on us by the Creator that drive many of us to do more than we normally could. It is a top-tier emotion that can supersede the base emotions of fear or joy that guide many of us from moment to moment.


With all of the wonderful things that hope brings to humans, it can have a negative effect. In the case of believing in a pre-tribulation rapture, it’s our hopes that play against us to strengthen the delusion. The end days will be marked with the greatest evils the world has ever seen. Millions, even billions of people will die quickly in an unprecedented wave of destruction and chaos. People will be forced to make tough choices unlike anything that we’ve ever had to face.


It won’t be choices about how to pay a mortgage or what to do about the bully at school. These choices will be more important than even the life or death decisions that some are forced to make today. These will be choices about our soul, choices about eternity.


There will be suffering greater than the vast majority of people have ever imagined, let alone experienced.


Many churches have latched onto the concept of the pre-tribulation rapture for two reason:



  • It has been accepted by their peers, publishers, conference organizers, and other religious support bodies. If you preach anything other than a pre-tribulation rapture, you’re not going to get in with the “cool kids” of the modern church movement.

  • People don’t want to hear it. There’s a reason that people like Joel Osteen and Rick Warren are so popular. They tell people that everything is going to be okay, that they can do great things in this life, and that the Bible is not about doom and gloom. As a result, the churches that are preaching the truth about the coming of Yeshua have a challenge with filling their pews.


Hope is empowering in many cases, but in the case of the rapture, it’s debilitating. It is arguably the greatest threat to Christians.


An Open Mind (in this case) is Imperative


Today, many churches and Christians suffer from the negative effects of having an open mind. The Bible is very clear about what we should believe and how we are supposed to live our lives, but many modern churches have abandoned sound Biblical doctrine in order to be more inclusive. This is not the time to go into those things, but rather to focus on the instance when an open mind is most important.


Regardless of what you’re taught at church or on the internet, you must have an open mind about the end days. To believe that we will not have to go through tribulation is a nice thought, but if you are willing to open up to the possibility (truth) that we are going to face the toughest challenges that man has ever faced in the coming days, then you’ll be more prepared to face it when it comes. This is the time to open your mind. If you don’t, you will not be prepared and you are more likely to make very poor decisions that can haunt you for eternity.


It’s human nature to want to believe that good things are ahead in this life. We desperately want to feel like we are going to be spared the hardships that will face the world, that the bad things that are coming will not happen to us. The message of a pre-tribulation rapture is something to be desired. Unfortunately, it’s not the truth.


If through prayer, study, and an open mind you’re able to see the truth, then you will be better prepared when it happens. If you have a closed mind to it, the bad things to come will shock and confuse you. It will be in this time of confusion that many people of faith today will lose their faith. They will feel betrayed. They will fall away. It will cost them their souls.


The Real Hope


This is not bad. No matter how much this world and our current lives pull us in, we have a far greater future. During the times of tribulation is when our faith is most tested. Tribulation is not a time to fear. It is a time to shine. It is an opportunity for us to face the worst that the adversary can throw at us and come through the other end with the greatest hope of eternity still intact.


No man can do it alone. We need to pray constantly for our Father to guide us, for the Holy Spirit to fill us, and for the glory of our Messiah to take us up to Him at the appointed time. There will be many tests and challenges that we will face before that time. When you realize that the hope of men and churches are almost always false, the real hope of a permanent place in Heaven can give you more to live (and die) for than any reward from this world.


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Hundreds of methane plumes have been found along the East Coast


Hundreds of methane plumes have been found along the East Coast


During a sweeping survey of the United States Atlantic Coast, it was discovered that hundreds of gas plumes are currently bubbling up from the sea floor. While ocean explorers have yet to test the gas, the bubbles are almost certainly methane, according to research report that was published yesterday. “We don’t know of any explanation that fits as well as methane,” said lead study author Adam Skarke, a geologist at Mississippi State University.


Between Cape Hatteras in North Carolina and Georges Bank in Massachusetts, around 570 methane seeps are clustered in eight regions, according to sonar and video that was gathered by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration ship Okeanos Explorer between 2011 and 2013. Most of the seeps are on the continental slope break, where the seafloor angles down toward the Atlantic Ocean basin.


Using sound waves, the Okeanos Explorer was able to map the sea floor and detect the methane bubbles. The technique is called “multibeam sonar”, and calculates the distance it takes for sound waves to travel from the ship and then bounce off of the seafloor back towards the ship. The sonar is also capable of detecting the density contrast between gas bubbles and regular seawater.


The vast majority of the methane seeps are in water that is less than 1,640 feet deep. Most of these methane seeps appear to arise from microbes spewing out methane, accord to the researchers. However, the researchers did find some methane vents that were located in deeper waters, at which the ROV Jason glimpsed patches of methane hydrate. This is the icy mix of methane and water that appears when deep ocean pressures and cold temperatures force methane to solidify.


“It was a surprise to find these features,” Skarke said. “It was unexpected because many of the common things associated with methane gas do not exist on the Atlantic margin.”


Read more about the story at Nature.


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Sunday, August 24, 2014

US Economy Isn’t Sure What To Do


Economic Questions


By some indicators, everything is heading in the right direction. From other perspectives, we’re no better now than when we were in a full-blown recession. The US economy is proving to be less of a bull or a bear and more of a chameleon as we approach the holiday season.


It seems to be a problem with trust. More people are working. More companies are hiring. However, neither the employers nor the employees are spending the money that they’re making. Investments for growth and prosperity are still hanging at dangerously low marks, prompting some economists to wonder what it will take to get the negative economic numbers to align with the positive ones.


As MarketWatch calls it, we’re experiencing a double-sided economy:



A slate of reports this week on business investment, consumer spending and home sales is unlikely to alter the outlook. The economy is growing faster, but it’s still not firing on all cylinders and too many Americans are still without jobs, a point emphasized by Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen.



Read More: MarketWatch


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As SCO War Games Begin, the Russian-Chinese-Muslim Alliance Grows


Putin and Xi


Call the relationship between Russia and China what you will. When two of the three military superpowers converge in an alliance such as theirs, the third superpower had better watch out. When their organization includes countries with a Muslim majority, the concerns for the future are even greater.


This is not another case of Islamophobia. In this situation, the other countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan – are all primarily Muslim and are pawns through which the group will be able to pull more support from other Muslim countries. Russia and China are the threat. The expansion of the SCO across Asia, Europe, and into the Middle East will quickly dwarf NATO in overall population.


They are already courting other countries, some of whom have strong military forces and even nuclear capabilities. The fifth watershed summit in 2005 held in Astana, Kazakhstan, included representatives from Pakistan, India, Iran, and Mongolia. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev greeted guests by declaring that “The leaders of the states sitting at this negotiation table are representatives of half of humanity”.


This week, the SCO will be holding their largest military drills in history. Dubbed “The Peace Mission 2014″, members of five different armies will be working together to train to eliminate a considerable “terrorist force”. Why they would need to test 40 BMP-2 fully amphibious crawling traction infantry combat vehicles to use against terrorists is a mystery. Or is it?


Preparation for Middle East Warfare


The countries in question have remained passive over the various Middle East conflicts in the last decade. Is this a sign that it could all change soon?


As conspiracy theories go, this isn’t really much of a stretch. The insistence by Russia to control Ukraine seems to be more than just a passing fancy. They’re willing to provoke the United States and Europe over the land which many consider to be their gateway to western Europe. Moreover, it would give them better access to and control over the Black Sea than NATO’s Turkey.


If there are plans in the future to participate actively in the Middle East, having alliances with more Muslim countries will be paramount. Currently, their are loose relationships that are bolstered by Russian aid and Chinese commerce, but if the need for military action arises, they’ll need a solid relationship. We may be seeing the seeds of those relationships breaking through the dirt right before our eyes.


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Unlike Most Armies, Islamic State Gets Stronger With Each Victory


Islamic State Getting Stronger


As the course of a war goes on, small and disorganized military units get weaker from battle to battle. That is not the case with the war that the Islamic State is waging across Iraq and Syria. Each victory makes them stronger.


This is a nimble and surprisingly organized set up units, not the junior varsity that US President Barack Obama described them as earlier this year. Their most recent victory, taking the Tabqa air base in Syria, cost them around 350 soldiers and the munitions and equipment that was used in the 6-day siege. However, they captured as many as 150 soldiers and will be able to recruit more. They also now control the airplanes, helicopters, tanks, artillery, and ammunition bunkers.


Their success has been helped in large part by their captured tools of war as well as growing ranks of forced recruits and volunteers. According to dw.de:



The Islamic State’s offences have been aided by large quantities of advanced US-made weaponry and armoured vehicles it has seized from fleeing Iraqi forces, and an influx of recruits.



This problem is not going away without intervention from the outside world. While fingerpointing continues in the US and Europe, the group is embedding itself deeper into the crevices of the Middle East. Soon, they will be too powerful for mere air strikes.


As US Army General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the world during a news conference last week, this group has an “apocalyptic, end-of-days strategic vision” in the Middle East and cannot be defeated unless the United States and a coalition of partners confront it head-on in Syria.


Perhaps that’s the point. As Americans, we have grown to be weary about conflict, particularly in the Middle East. The region is unlikely to see any sustained peace in the near future. It may never see peace until Jesus reigns on earth. Are we prepared as a nation to let the Middle East boil over into a world war?


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Normally, I don't like cupcakes, but I'll make this one exception. #BecauseBacon



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Saturday, August 23, 2014

Oregon is suing Oracle over its failed healthcare enrollment website


Oregon is suing Oracle over its failed healthcare enrollment website


Oracle, the largest technology contractor that worked on Oregon’s failed healthcare enrollment website, is now being sued by the state, which alleges that Oracle convinced officials to purchase “hundreds of millions of dollars of Oracle products and services that failed to perform as promised.”


State officials have been hit with a lot of criticism for the website, known as Cover Oregon, which never actually launched due to a plethora of technical problems. Rather than signing up for insurance online under the Affordable Care Act, Oregon residents have had to rely on a hybrid process which uses both print and online materials through the federal government’s own website, HealthCare.gov.


Oregon is also accusing Oracle of breaching their contract, along with civil racketeering, for failing to deliver on its obligations, overcharging for poorly trained Oracle personnel to provide incompetent work, hiding from the state the true extent of Oracle’s shoddy performance, continuing to promise what it could not deliver, and willfully refusing to honor its warranty to fix its errors without charge.”


Oracle called the suit “a fictional account” in a statement on Friday, and said that it expects to prevail in its own lawsuit against Oregon, which was filed two weeks ago. A key point of contention in the case is Oregon’s decision to act as its own systems integrator on the project, using Oracle staffers on a time-and-materials basis.


“That decision was akin to an individual with no construction experience undertaking to manage the processes of designing and building a massive multi-use downtown skyscraper without an architect or general contractor,” Oracle said in its complaint.


Read more about the story at Venture Beat.


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Why Christians Should Defend Israel Politically


Israeli Soldiers


It’s easy to be anti-Israel. It seems that everyone from celebrities to politicians, forum comment trolls to social media gurus are generally more supportive of Hamas than Israel. For reasons that we’ll discuss later, blaming Israel and the Jewish people in general has become “hip” amongst young people while old anti-Semitic feelings have been brought to the surface in the older generation because, well, it’s more acceptable to have those thoughts than any time in the last three decades.


Before we explore more deeply in a future article, let’s make a distinction. This is not about being anti-Mulsim rather than anti-Jew. As Christians, we view Mulsims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, and even Jews as fellow brothers in this life who should be shown the truth of Jesus Christ rather than people who are enemies. That is how we should view the people themselves, the individuals.


The political enemy in this case would be those who want to strike down the nations of Israel and the United States, who want to take over the world to spread Islam, and who are being led by forces of darkness. The political enemy is Hamas. It’s ISIS. It’s the Iranian government. It’s other emerging and shifting world powers that guide or force their people to go against the God of Israel, the Father of Yeshua, the Creator of the universe.


Another thing must be understood before we dive too deeply into this. The Israeli government is not perfect, though currently their goals are aligned with what true Christians should be feeling. They want a few things to happen:



  • They want the attacks from Gaza to stop and for the capabilities of Hamas to launch rockets in the future to be eliminated.

  • ISIS is currently not a direct threat, but it’s just a matter of time unless their current trajectory is dramatically changed. Israel is watching very closely because they know that when ISIS has established a firm hold on the lands they are currently attacking, they will regroup and turn their attention towards other places with Israel being the most obvious potential choice.

  • They want as much stability as possible in the Middle East, which means that they do not want Iran to continue their nuclear weapons program.


These goals should be shared by Christians. Whether or not you support the country itself, the religion of Judaism, or the Jewish people, you must support their cause politically as American Christians as well as other Christians around the world. Just as the Arab Spring was incorrectly believed to be a good thing for peace, prosperity, democracy, and justice in the Middle East, so too is the current trend of Hamas support and/or Israel-bashing an invalid perspective to hold.


The Bible is clear about Israel and the Jewish people. They are His people. The land they hold is His land. The threats that surround them are prophesied in the Bible and the outcome is not a pleasant one at first for the world. We need to support Israel as long as possible because going against Israel is going against the Lord.


It’s inevitable that more and more people will push against Israel. The media has turned against them. The United Nations has turned against them. Our political leaders have turned against them. What was once seen as an impossibility not too long ago is a fact today. The world is turning against the little country the size of New Jersey and asking them to give up the land that they won against all odds in the 20th century and that God has promised to them for millennia.


It will happen. The longer we can work together to keep it from happening, the longer we’ll have on this earth to spread the Gospel, to reach our loved ones, and to walk this earth with the full Armor of God reach as many souls as we can. We must support the nation of Israel politically by voicing our perspectives


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Mount Fuji: Japan’s iconic volcanic mountain


Mount Fuji: Japan’s iconic volcanic mountain


Mount Fuji is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Japan. It’s hard to imagine the sprawling metropolis of Tokyo without picturing the towering volcano in the background. It is one the “Three Holy Mountains” in Japan, is recognized by the government as both a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and a Historic Site, and was added to the World Heritage List as a Cultural Site on June 22, 2013.


Mount Fuji: Japan’s iconic volcanic mountain


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Disney is looking to implement drones into its theme parks


Disney is looking to implement drones into its theme parks


Disney has a long history of using advanced animatronics and high technology for its shows and theme’s park, but some of the entertainment company’s new patents mean anything, Disney could be taking things to the next level by using drones as floating TV screens and animatronic puppet masters. Each patent outlines uses for swarms of small, synchronized quadcopters or multicopters, which could either enhance or fully replace the company’s existing light shows, fireworks displays, and parade balloons.


The first two patents outline different methods for producing light shows, the first of which uses large, flexible screens that are lifted into the air by small, remote-controlled craft. These screens would be large projection surfaces that are made out of mesh that would allow wind to flow through them. Or drones to produce their own images using loosely woven strips of LEDs. The drones would be able to detect each other and work together in unison, according to a central program.


The second method would use swarms of small drones that are each equipped with a light and act as “floating pixels”. These drones would be able to change the color of their lights as needed which would enable an operator to program them to make picture or abstract displays that look like fireworks. While this certainly isn’t the first time that a company has tried something like this, Disney is trying to add enough specificity to warrant a patent.


Read more about the story at Market Watch.


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Flagstaff: Arizona’s city in the mountains


Flagstaff: Arizona’s city in the mountains


When most people think about Arizona, they think about long stretches of red desert, towering mesas, and of course, the Grand Canyon. One of the lesser known features of the state’s gorgeous landscape, however, are the tree covered mountains that make up most of the central portion of Arizona. The mountains are sparsely populated, and contain only a few logging settlements, with the exception of Flagstaff. This moderately sized city lies next to Interstate 40, and is home to some of the most gorgeous views west of the Mississippi.


Flagstaff: Arizona’s city in the mountains


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Friday, August 22, 2014

Thursday, August 21, 2014

MSU researchers have created transparent solar cells


MSU researchers have created transparent solar cells


Solar power is widely considered to be the most promising form of alternative energy due in large part to the universal availability of its energy source, the sun. It’s for this reason that so many researchers are working to advance the technology, spawning a plethora of innovative developments for the technology. The latest such development is that of transparent solar panels that look and feel just like regular glass.


Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have developed a new solar panels that perfectly resembles regular glass. The panels can be placed on top of a window to collect solar energy without obstructing the view that the window provides. Called a transparent luminescent solar concentrator, the panel uses organic molecules that are made to absorb wavelengths of light that aren’t visible to the human eye, such as ultraviolet and near infrared light. The material redirects the light to the edges of the panel where it is converted to electricity by strips of photovoltaic solar cells.


The panels are supposed to be extremely affordable due to the cheap materials that are used to produce them. The problem is that, since the panels are very limited in the types of light that they can harness for energy, they are pretty inefficient. According to MSU College of Engineering lead Richard Lunt, the panels can only capture somewhere around 1% of the light that passes through them, but he hopes that that number can be brought up to 5% once the technology has been fully optimized.


“It opens a lot of area to deploy solar energy in a non-intrusive way. It can be used on tall buildings with lots of windows or any kind of mobile device that demands high aesthetic quality like a phone or e-reader. Ultimately we want to make solar harvesting surfaces that you do not even know are there,” said Lunt.


Read more about the story at MSU Today.


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Cities continue to get hotter, and it’s starting to affect health


Cities continue to get hotter, and it’s starting to affect health


Cities are almost always hotter than the rural areas that surround them, but global warming is taking that extra heat and making a hell of a lot hotter. In the near future, this combination of urbanization and climate change could bring urban temperatures to such high levels that it could threaten human health, strain energy resources, and hurt economic productivity.


Summers in the United States have been getting hotter since 1970, but on average, cities across the country are getting hotter at a much faster pace than adjacent rural areas. This is due to something called an “urban heat island”. These heat islands are caused by asphalt and building which absorb and radiate heat, essentially trapping heat in an area. The lack of greenery also means less shade and evaporative cooling.


With more than 80% of the United States population living in cities, these urban heat islands, in combination with Earth’s rising temperatures caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, have the potential to cause serious health effects for millions of Americans during the hottest months of the year. Heat is the largest weather-related killer in the United States,


Researchers have suggested that better urban planning, especially with designs that incorporate more trees and urban parks, as well as white roofs and alternative material for urban infrastructure can help reduce the effects of urban heat islands. However, this will not affect the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, which are projected to drive the average summer temperatures in the United States to even higher levels in the coming decades.


Read more about the story at The Huffington Post.


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Scientists have confirmed the presence of life beneath Antarctica


Scientists have confirmed the presence of life beneath Antarctica


Half a mile beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, deep within and underground lake, scientists have discovered a diverse ecosystem of mineral-eating, single-celled organisms that managed to survive, and thrive, despite the fact that they have never seen the light of the sun.


There were earlier claims of similar microbes that were drawn from a different Antarctic lake, said the authors of the new study published in Nature, but these claims were controversial due to the fact that the samples had been contaminated, a problem which was avoided with these most recent samples thanks to especially careful drilling techniques.


“It’s the real deal,” said Peter Doran, an Earth scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who was not involved in the study. “There was news that they found life early this year, but a bunch of us were waiting for the peer reviewed paper to come out before we jumped for joy.”


This finding has concluded an effort that spanned a few years to confirm the presence of life below the coldest, driest continent on Earth. The scientific community considers the implications of this study nothing short of profound, potentially reshaping how medications are made and even human understanding of how life survives in other extreme environments, be they in Earth or in outer space.


“Our report in Nature is indeed the first time the presence of life has been confirmed beneath the Antarctic ice sheet,” says John Priscu, chief scientist for Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling, or WISSARD, which made the discovery. “There’s unknown organisms, pharmaceuticals we can search out, food preservatives, things of that nature. There’s a lot of stuff down there, a lot of biological material we never knew about.”


Read more about the story at Smithsonian.


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Cities are causing spiders to grow bigger and breed faster


Cities are causing spiders to grow bigger and breed faster


Spiders are starting to become bigger and reproduce faster thanks to the numerous amenities that are provided for them by cities. Things such as artificial lighting, lawns, urban heat islands, and many other features that are present in all cities have combined to create a new generation of super spiders, according to a new study.


The findings in the study, which was published in the last issue of PLoS ONE, could help explain why many homeowners are finding exceptionally large spiders in their homes, lawns, and gardens. Researchers say that the effect is noticeable among common orb weaving spiders, which are the ones that build the usual wheel-shaped webs.


“Artificial night lighting has many implications for spider fitness as it leads to local increases in insect abundance, and increased prey capture for spiders in lit habitats,” wrote lead author of the study, Elizabeth Lowe from the University of Sydney. Most wildlife struggle to survive in urban environments, but some “urban exploiters”, such as pigeons and raccoons, readily adapt to, and even thrive in, the new environment.


Lowe believes two things about cities are influencing these critters’ bulk: temperature and an abundance of insects to eat. “Hard surfaces and lack of vegetation lead to the well-known ‘urban-heat island’ effect, with more heat retained than in areas with continuous vegetation,” she says. “Higher temperature is associated with increased growth and size in invertebrates.”


“The increased expenditure and management of parks in wealthy suburbs could result in healthier vegetation patches,” the researchers wrote, “which would increase prey abundance and allow spiders to grow larger and build up fat reserves.”


Read more about the story at Wired.


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Researchers have developed a sweat-powered “biobattery”


Researchers have developed a sweat-powered “biobattery”


Ever wondered what the world would be like if you could harness your own sweat to charge your mobile devices? Probably not, but nevertheless, researchers at the University of California at San Diego have designed a device which does exactly that.


Unveiled at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco, the device is actually a temporary tattoo that produces power from perspiration. The device uses lactate as fuel, the molecule that your body produces naturally after vigorous exercise.


This “biobattery” could soon be used to power things such as heart monitors, digital watches, and possibly even smartphones, according to scientists in California. Many researchers have been trying to find the best way to harness “people power” which has led to many interesting innovations, such as movement power and even blood power.


“Our device is the first to use sweat. It’s a proof of concept,” said Dr Wenzhao Jia of at the University of California, San Diego. “At the moment the power is not that high, only four microwatts, but we are working on enhancing it so it can power small electronic devices.”


The funny things is, the researchers at the University of California at San Diego who designed the biobattery weren’t even trying to create it at first, they were actually looking for a better way to measure lactate.


Athletes sometimes evaluate their fitness by checking their lactate levels in their blood, and the researchers wanted to develop a way to measure lactate in sweat instead so that people no longer have to draw blood.


The team of researchers designed a monitor that strips electronics from lactate, a process which creates a small electric current. All the team has to do from there is measure the strength of the current to determine the amount of lactate in the person’s body.


From there, the researchers wondered if it would be possible to tap into that energy to create a sort of sweat-powered biobattery. The team’s proof-of-concept setup produces a miniscule, relatively useless amount of energy, but advancements in this technology and more efficient electronics could one day make sweat-powered biobatteries a reality.


Read more about the story at Phys.


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Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

The US military is very interested in Google’s modular smartphone


The US military is very interested in Google’s modular smartphone


Google’s upcoming modular smartphone, known as Project Ara, has many benefits from a consumer’s prospective, but what about the device’s potential applications for fields in business, emergency response, and even the military. Apparently, Vanderbilt’s Institute for Software Integration Systems (ISIS) has been wondering the same thing.


Gizmodo writer Adam Clark Estes, under the guidance of former DARPA program manager Janos Sztipanovits, has discovered that ISIS is currently investigating ways to take advantage of the modular nature of Project Ara. Naturally, the most appealing part for ISIS is the fact that you can swap out the smartphone’s parts – such as the battery, camera, or processor – whenever you want to.


“The whole idea behind Ara is that you’re able to add specialized hardware to the phone,” said ISIS team member, Ted Bapty. “I think you could think of a lot of things that the military would do that would require extra hardware: geiger counters, chemical sensors… just a wide range of applications.”


Current smartphone technology is more than advanced enough to meet the needs of most government officials, but on the battlefield, it’s a different story. Having extra parts available could open a range of possibilities for soldiers, giving them the flexibility they need to adapt to different situations when they need to.


Read more about the story at Gizmodo.


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Monday, August 18, 2014

Saturday, August 16, 2014

SeaWorld is upgrading its orca habitats following “Blackfish” controversy


SeaWorld is upgrading its orca habitats following “Blackfish” controversy


After having sustained heavy damage from the controversy surrounding the captivity of killer whales, SeaWorld has announced a massive expansion that will see the size of its orca environment double. The company also plans to contribute an additional $10 million to research on the species and establish an independent advisory committee of scientists to oversee its orca program.


Called the Blue World Project, the new orca environment will cover 1.5 acres at 50 feet deep and 350 feet in length. The new habitat will contain over 10 million gallons of water, nearly double the 5.6 million in the current habitat. The new pool will also allow park visitors to view the orcas from a 40-foot-tall glass wall below the water line. The new habitat, which SeaWorld claims is the first of its kind, is expected to be completed by 2018.


“Through up-close and personal encounters, the new environment will transform how visitors experience killer whales,” Jim Atchison, chief executive officer and president of SeaWorld Entertainment, said in a statement. “Our guests will be able to walk alongside the whales as if they were at the shore, watch them interact at the depths found in the ocean, or a birds-eye view from above”.


The Orlando-based company announced the new habitat shortly after posting terrible second-quarter earnings that sent it stock plunging down more than 30%. It was then that the company acknowledged that the controversy surrounding its whales, which was caused by last year’s anti-captivity documentary “Blackfish”, had hurt park attendance. It’s no surprise then that SeaWorld is spend so much money on improving the conditions of its animals.


“This gives the investors and employees a signal that `we’re fighting back, we’re going to get our message out there’. They’re in a battle for their lives right now,” said Scott Smith, a professor at the University of South Carolina whose specialties include theme parks.


Read more about the story at Fox News.


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Google is coating its underwater cables with Kevlar to fend of sharks


Google is coating its underwater cables with Kevlar to fend of sharks


You wouldn’t think that sharks would be a threat to underwater fiber-optic cables, but Google believes that it’s a serious concern, serious enough that the tech company will be wrapping the wires of its Trans-Pacific cable system in a Kevlar-like material to prevent them from being damaged by sharks, a spokesperson for the company recently disclosed.


For unknown reasons, sharks have the tendency to bite fiber-optic cables far more than old-fashioned coaxial copper wires. According to a report by United Nations Environment Program and the International Cable Protection Committee, sharks can see electromagnetic fields and it’s possible that sharks are “encouraged by electromagnetic fields from a suspended cable strumming in currents”.


According to their report: “Fish, including sharks, have a long history of biting cables as identified from teeth embedded in cable sheathings. Barracuda, shallow- and deep-water sharks and others have been identified as causes of cable failure. Bites tend to penetrate the cable insulation, allowing the power conductor to ground with seawater. Attacks on telegraph cables took place mainly on the continental shelf and continued into the coaxial era until 1964. Thereafter, attacks occurred at greater depths, presumably in response to the burial of coaxial and fiber- optic cables on the shelf and slope. Coaxial and fiber-optic cables have attracted the attention of sharks and other fish. The best-documented case comes from the Canary Islands, where the first deep-ocean fiber-optic cable failed on four occasions as a result of shark attacks in water depths of 3,478 to 6,234 feet.”


Read more about the story at The Huffington Post.


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